One of Haiti’s top investigative journalists was the victim of an apparent assassination attempt Tuesday when his vehicle was riddled with bullets during an armed attack while on his way to work.
Roberson Alphonse, who works for Le Nouvelliste, the country’s only daily and hosts its popular morning program Panel Magik on Port-au-Prince- based radio station Magik 9, was in stable condition after being shot in the arms by an unknown gunman, said Frantz Duval, the chief editor for the newspaper and its leading editorial writer.
“I saw him, I spoke to him, he is in shock but not doing too bad,” Duval said.
The attack happened the same day authorities in the southern city of Les Cayes found the body of missing journalist Garry Tess. Tess used to host a political talk show in the city and had been missing for several days.
Both incidents come just weeks after Haiti, with support from the U.N.-Security Council, requested the immediate deployment of a special armed force to help the country’s police battle a powerful gang federation that has been blocking the main fuel terminal, Varreux. The blockade has stopped the flow of fuel, food and drinking water, amid a deadly resurgence of cholera.
The head of the gang federation, Jimmy Cherizier, who is known as Barbecue, has said he will unblock the fuel when interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns. Cherizer last week became the first person sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council in five years after it passed a resolution to sanction Haitian gangs and those who arm and finance them.
Alphonse is one of Haiti’s more respected and well-known journalists, who has remained in the country despite the threat of the profession. He was featured in the Miami Herald’s Emmy-winning post-earthquake documentary "Nou Bouke [We’re Tired]: Haiti’s Past, Present and Future."
In a statement, Haiti’s Ministry of Culture and Communication expressed solidarity with Alphonse’s family, colleagues and “the entire corporation hard hit by this unfortunate event, which threatens all too often the press sector in Haiti.”
“Roberson Alphonse,” the statement said, “is a highly respected personality in the Haitian press. His rigor, his effort to be impartial and his sense of perfection make him a model for the profession.”
Duval says the attack happened in the Delmas 40B neighborhood of Port-au-Prince early Monday morning. The vehicle had more than 10 bullet holes. Despite being injured during the armed attack, Alphonse managed to drive himself to the hospital.
Duval said he first became aware of a problem when he received a call from the radio station shortly after 7 a.m. that Alphonse hadn’t arrived and was nowhere to be found. Duval immediately started trying to locate the reporter. Duval soon received a call from Alphonse informing him that he had been attacked and was at the hospital.
“I was in shock,” Duval said.
“As the former president of the Association of Haitian Media, there are two things I always say,” he said. “Haiti is a slippery terrain for journalists and Haiti is always a complicated place for journalists. The insecurity is such that at any time, any place, anyone can become a victim. When you combine these two realities, journalists are doubly at risk.”
At least 17 journalists and media workers have been killed in Haiti between 1992 and 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The armed attack against Alphonse is the latest involving journalists amid worsening violence and a deepening humanitarian, economic and political crisis in Haiti, where a powerful gang federation has been blocking the main fuel terminal for over six weeks.
In September, Frantzsen Charles and Tayson Lartigue were shot and killed while visiting the Cité Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince after a group of journalists came under attack.
In January, two Haitian journalists, Wilguens Louis-Saint and John Wesley Amady, were killed by suspected gang members in the hills above the capital while they were reporting on gang violence in the area. The following month, broadcast journalist Maximilien Lazard was killed and two other journalists injured when Haiti National Police opened fire on a wage protest by textile workers.
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